Florida Panthers defeat Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime, advance to Eastern Conference Finals

TORONTO —The Florida Panthers returned to Scotiabank Arena on Friday night with another chance to book their ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals. 

On the other side of the ice, the home team Toronto Maple Leafs had to fight another night to keep their season alive as they trailed in the series 3-1.

The story of this series was tight, back and forth games – this was prevalent again tonight. 

After a tied 60 minutes, the Panthers took the game and the series in overtime with Nick Cousins’ game winning goal. The Cats won 3-2, taking the series in five games, punching their way to the conference finals. 

The beginning of the game swung in Florida’s favor, with the Cats getting the first two goals of the night. 

At the 1:37 mark of the first Eetu Luostarinen took a high stick from Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe, sending the Panthers to an early power play.

As the power play time ticked down, Florida’s second unit got the team on the board. Gustav Forsling hit Aaron Ekblad on the left faceoff circle for a quick one-time shot that snuck past Leafs’ goalie Joseph Woll. 

After taking the early 1-0 lead, Florida grabbed one more goal before the intermission. 

Toronto defenseman Timothy Liljegren wasn’t able to corral a bouncing puck that was long flipped into the neutral zone by Aaron Ekblad. Carter Verhaeghe got a stick on the play while Anthony Duclair picked up the puck as the Cat’s pushed into the Leaf’s zone.

Duclair fed Verhaeghe for a one-timer and he buried it, putting the Cats up 2-0.

Trailing by two goals with their season on the line, Morgan Rielly showed up as he has all postseason for the Leafs. 

After winning the puck down low, Sam Lafferty hit Rielly at the point and the Leaf’s blueliner wired it through traffic to score his fourth goal of the playoffs. 

Later in the period, it appeared Rielly scored again for the Leafs to tie the game, however that ended up not being the case. 

Rielly drove the net and got the puck towards goal and under Sergei Bobrovsky’s pad. Toronto thought they scored, however the officials didn’t award a goal on the ice. After a lengthy replay, they confirmed that the call on the ice would stand, no goal. 

Toronto didn’t get the equalizer they needed here, but as the old saying goes, a two goal lead is the worst lead in hockey.

Toronto kept piling on the pressure in the third, out shooting the Panthers 14-7. Their season wouldn’t end there, at least not in regulation. 

With under five minutes left in the third, William Nylander broke through the neutral zone on his horse. He blew past both Marc Staal and Brandon Montour before he caught Bobrovsky up high.

The Leafs tied the game, keeping their season alive and bringing the crowd to life.

This game would need overtime. 

Toronto’s desperation and desire to continue playing hockey showed tonight. 

By the time the final whistle blew, the Leafs put 52 shots on Sergei Bobrovsky. 

The Leafs had their fair share of chances to take this series back to Florida in the OT frame. The one thing, or should I say man standing in their way was the goaltender of the Panthers. 

Despite the last ditch effort to keep their season alive, Toronto’s year would end off the stick of Nick Cousins. 

Just under five minutes to go in overtime, Nick Cousins came through the Leafs’ zone, pulled a curl and drag shot and beat Joseph Woll to end the series in five. Radko Gudas picked up multiple helpers on the goal, as he started the rush from the Panthers’ zone, set a pick on the Leafs’ defense and screened the goalie on route to the Cousins’ goal.

“So much credit to him, he broke the play up in our own end and got it up to me,” Cousins said about Radko Gudas’ on the OT winner. “I was just fortunate enough to make a curl drag there and lucky enough it went in, I mean all the credit to him.”

This win puts Florida in the Eastern Conference Finals, a place they haven’t been to since 1996. Their next opponent will be the Carolina Hurricanes, who also just closed off their second-round series in five games.

“Honestly I don’t want to talk about Carolina yet, we just want to enjoy this one tonight,” said Matthew Tkachuk after Game 5.